Alexandra Borchardt is a senior journalist, media researcher, university teacher, and independent advisor. She works as a coach for the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) in their Table Stakes Europe Programme on the digital transformation of newsrooms and as co-director of the Climate Explorer Fellowship Program at Constructive Institute in Aarhus. She is also affiliated with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford as a Senior Research Associate (https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-alexandra-borchardt-0) after having served as their Director of Leadership Programmes until 2019. Prior to this she was managing editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ).
Alexandra is the lead author of three EBU News Reports: the upcoming “Trusted Journalism in the Age of Generative AI” (to be published in June 2024), “Climate Journalism That Works: Between Knowledge and Impact” (2023) and “What’s Next? Public Service Journalism in the Age of Distraction, Opinion, and Information Abundance” (2021).
As a honorary Professor for Leadership and Digital Transformation at TU Munich’s TUM School of Management Alexandra teaches “Leadership and Strategy in the 21st Century”. She gives keynotes on digital transformation and the media and publishes commentaries, essays, and a monthly column for the German industry publication Medieninsider. SShe is the author of “Mehr Wahrheit wagen – Warum die Demokratie einen starken Journalismus braucht” (Dare more truth – Why democracy needs strong journalism), Dudenverlag, 2020, and “Mensch 4.0 – Frei bleiben in einer digitalen Welt” (Freedom in a digital world), Random House, 2018.
She is a member of the Committee for Editorial Independence at Czech publisher Economia, board member of the Constructive Foundation in Aarhus, member of the advisory board of the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium, member of the advisory board of Wiener Zeitung, Klimafakten, and engaged in the evaluation of media start-ups in different juries. At the Council of Europe she served as a rapporteur on the Committee of Experts on Freedom of Expression and Digital Technologies until September 2021 and prior to that as vice chair on the Committee of Experts on Quality Journalism in the Digital Age.
Alexandra holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Tulane University, New Orleans (1994), and in 2013 completed a Programme for Management Development at IESE Business School, Barcelona. You can look at some of Alexandra’s work at www.alexandraborchardt.com, and connect with her on X (Twitter) at @AlexaBorchardt, Bluesky, or LinkedIn.
@AlexaBorchardt